joy Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Deacon Chris Anderson

Joy and Death: A Memorial Homily

Memorial Service, Jerry Liddell

Sometimes in the midst of our sadness and our busyness there are quiet moments of joy. We wake up early and walk outside and the stars are shining in the morning sky. We hear the voice of someone we love, calling from another room.

Or maybe like Jerry we’re helping someone with a computer or we’re taking care of our daughter or we’re just staying home and going about our routines and for a moment we feel happy and free. We feel like ourselves. We are fully alive.

This is what heaven is like and in fact this is why we believe in heaven. Because we’ve glimpsed it, here and now. We believe in the afterlife because we believe in this life.

When we get to heaven we will recognize it.

October 12, 2015

Homily

The Fist Bump

Ordinary Time – Luke 11:5-13

“Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” This was the biblical verse I was given when I was 14, when I was confirmed a Missouri Synod Lutheran in Spokane.

And in a way it’s problematic for me now because it doesn’t at first seem to account for what I think is a major fact of the spiritual life, and that’s desolation. We seek and don’t seem to find anything sometimes, for days and weeks and months. We knock and the door stays closed, or seems to. All we have is emptiness or blankness or loneliness, or we’re bored, or the usual gossip and bureaucracy keeps going on inside us and we just don’t want to keep knowing that.

October 8, 2015